If you take off the back grills it will open up the sound stage a lot more. They work really well for gaming, I use them with bf3 all the time and I always have a good idea of where Im getting shot from.

By Dolby Headphone I meant the virtual surround that cards like the Xonar line have. Sorry for the confusion

nope I'm just using the e7/e9 as a DAC coming right out of a usb output on the mobo. no soundcards or anything. When I had a ps3 I used a 5.1 surround sound speaker system, I prefer the HD600 set up much more.

I have never used any virtual surround sound cards before... But I don't think I'm missing much.

How are they for FPS shooters or any gaming?I've thought about getting them and after reading up a but, they appear to suit my needs music wise

I use mine for gaming all the time and they work great. I use the Zalman clip-on mic with them. Its handy because I can clip it onto whichever headphones I'm using at the moment but the HD600 gets the most head time for me, both for music and gaming.

Quote:

Originally Posted by ProtegeManiac

One problem : the time you spend gaming will wear out the pads too quickly and thus change the sound too soon.

Honestly, I wouldn't worry at all about wearing out the pads. They are easy and relatively cheap to replace and what's the use of having a great pair of headphones if you aren't going to use them whenever you can?

Quote:

Originally Posted by ProtegeManiac

There's a Creative that comes with its own USB DAC with surroudn simulation for around $50;...

Quote:

Originally Posted by Manyom7

Do you use dolby headphone

Forgive me if I sound like a dick here but I have never understood these features. You do realize that surround sound is already built-in to every game, right? Sounds occurring behind your character will come from behind, sounds occurring in front of your character will come from the front, and so on. I've never heard a surround sound feature that didn't muck up what the game designers intended. I highly recommend you turn any such feature or sound effects off. However, you do want to set your speaker configuration to headphones in the game's audio settings, if it has the option. This will slightly change the direction that sounds come from to accommodate for the fact that your speakers are on your ears instead of sitting in front of you.

So you're probably wondering-- what's the difference between setting the audio settings in the game to 'headphones' and using a feature like 'Dolby Headphone'? Well, the difference is significant. In the former case, the game designers have specifically designed the audio positioning to be accurate through headphones whereas with the latter you are only *simulating* that positioning which cannot be completely accurate unless the game you are playing specifically supports the surround sound feature you're using (and you've enabled it in the game). Otherwise the effects of the simulated surround sound will always change the audio from what the game designers intended.

Think of it this way-- if I record an orchestra in a hallway and give you the recording, can you change it to sound like the orchestra is playing in an amphitheater? No. You can apply sound effects to the recording to attempt to simulate the sound of the orchestra playing in an amphitheater but it will never be accurate and will never be true to the recording. Game designers have spent a lot of time and expertise making your games sound awesome. Don't muck it up by trying to simulate something that isn't there.

It actually doesn't work that way. Yes the game designers build the positional cues into a game - but they require hardware/software combo that can translate these into the correct positional cures through your headphones. For the Asus cards etc - that Dolby HPh. For the Creative cards its CMSS. Without the correct hardware - you don't get the correct positional cues - it's not even close.

Previously when I played - you could hear someone approaching in an fps game, and not be 100% sure if they were behind you, and from which side. After I bought my X-Fi Titanium (for gaming I go X-Fi > coax > NFB-12 so that I can still use the dsp), I noticed immediate changes. All of a sudden the positional cues were very accurate, and movement was very easy to track from the precise direction.

It actually doesn't work that way. Yes the game designers build the positional cues into a game - but they require hardware/software combo that can translate these into the correct positional cures through your headphones. For the Asus cards etc - that Dolby HPh. For the Creative cards its CMSS. Without the correct hardware - you don't get the correct positional cues - it's not even close.

Previously when I played - you could hear someone approaching in an fps game, and not be 100% sure if they were behind you, and from which side. After I bought my X-Fi Titanium (for gaming I go X-Fi > coax > NFB-12 so that I can still use the dsp), I noticed immediate changes. All of a sudden the positional cues were very accurate, and movement was very easy to track from the precise direction.

I respect your opinion and your experience but I can tell exactly where sounds are coming from in my FPS games and I have none of the features you've mentioned. DACs, amps, headphones-- these are all sound reproduction devices. They can reproduce any possible audio signal. No special hardware is required to reproduce the sound of something that's behind you or off to one side. Saying that particular hardware is required for audio positioning is like saying a specific monitor is required to use image effects in Photoshop. If one of your games is missing accurate audio positioning unless you enable a hardware feature that is simply because the game designers chose not to implement it directly into the game. If they had, the hardware wouldn't be required. I've played Counter-Strike and Battlefield for years and have never once experienced a sound whose positioning wasn't obvious. Gun shots behind me come from behind me. Footsteps to my right come from the right. I can tell exactly what direction a sound is coming from and how far away from me it is. Its built into the game like it should be.

It actually doesn't work that way. Yes the game designers build the positional cues into a game - but they require hardware/software combo that can translate these into the correct positional cures through your headphones. For the Asus cards etc - that Dolby HPh. For the Creative cards its CMSS. Without the correct hardware - you don't get the correct positional cues - it's not even close.

Previously when I played - you could hear someone approaching in an fps game, and not be 100% sure if they were behind you, and from which side. After I bought my X-Fi Titanium (for gaming I go X-Fi > coax > NFB-12 so that I can still use the dsp), I noticed immediate changes. All of a sudden the positional cues were very accurate, and movement was very easy to track from the precise direction.

I respect your opinion and your experience but I can tell exactly where sounds are coming from in my FPS games and I have none of the features you've mentioned. DACs, amps, headphones-- these are all sound reproduction devices. They can reproduce any possible audio signal. No special hardware is required to reproduce the sound of something that's behind you or off to one side. Saying that particular hardware is required for audio positioning is like saying a specific monitor is required to use image effects in Photoshop. If one of your games is missing accurate audio positioning unless you enable a hardware feature that is simply because the game designers chose not to implement it directly into the game. If they had, the hardware wouldn't be required. I've played Counter-Strike and Battlefield for years and have never once experienced a sound whose positioning wasn't obvious. Gun shots behind me come from behind me. Footsteps to my right come from the right. I can tell exactly what direction a sound is coming from and how far away from me it is. Its built into the game like it should be.

I'll respect your opinion too - but lets agree to disagree. Unless your Mobo has some form of dsp built-in, from my experience you will not get as accurate cues as you can from an add-on card with those cues. Quick question - have you actually tried (so you can compare) either Dolby hph or CMSS3D?

If you take off the back grills it will open up the sound stage a lot more. They work really well for gaming, I use them with bf3 all the time and I always have a good idea of where Im getting shot from.